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This 2015 satellite photo revealed six different sets of “Von Kármán Vortices” swirling from an Atlantic island. (Image credit: NASA/Terra Satellite)Simple factsWhere is it? Atlantic OceanWhat do you see in the photo? Vonkármánvortices streams flow from multiple islandsWhich satellite took the photo? NASA’s Terra SatelliteWhen did you take it? May 20, 2015This impressive satellite image shows several examples of a rare weather phenomenon known as the “von Kalman vortex.” Many of these swirling cloud trails are rarely seen at once over such a large area.According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), it occurs when vonkármán vortices encounter land,…
A year after the Supreme Court’s decision that made cities easier to punish criminal penalties for homelessness, arrests and sleeping outside, it’s on the rise in many of California’s biggest cities. According to a report by Marisa Kendall’s Calmatters, the analysis found that arrests and citations for homelessness-related crimes rose by up to 500% (in San Francisco) in the six months after the decision to pass the grant. In Los Angeles, arrests rose 68%. In San Diego, arrests and quotations have doubled. City officials say people to help them participate in housing and access services rather than not wanting to…
The Albuquerque developers are turning some of the city’s vacant motels and homes into affordable housing. As Jack Herrera explains in High Country News, the city needs up to 30,000 new units to meet demand. “Plywood, on the other hand, covers windows in unused buildings, many of which are single-storey fake adve pueblo revival structures. In 2018, the city’s task force estimated that between 1,200 and 1,300 homes were either vacant, abandoned, or generally standard signs.” Rehabilitation of an old home solves two problems. It has energized booming economies in some regions and devastated others. And it is a rallying…
Montgomery County, Maryland, reports Dana Munroe and Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post that they have just eliminated bus fares as part of an effort to increase transportation access for low-income residents. Nearly half of Montgomery County bus riders make less than $30,000 a year. “Montgomery’s new policy will officially begin on Sunday and will be added to the existing policy that allows passengers under the age of 18 to ride freely, but the county has quietly stopped accepting fares from all recent bus riders.” The county discussed how to approach fares and transport funds for months before reaching consensus.…
July 1, 2025Ravi LakshmananMobile Security/Privacy Microsoft has said it has stopped supporting passwords for the Authenticator app from August 1, 2025. According to the company, the change is part of an effort to streamline Autofill for its two-factor authentication (2FA) app. “From July 2025, Authill features will no longer work, and passwords will no longer be accessible to Authenticators from August 2025,” said Microsoft Authenticator’s support document. It’s worth noting that Microsoft has already removed the ability to add or import new passwords to apps from last month. However, the option to save passwords via Autofill will continue to work…
ChatGPT, OpenAI’s text-generating AI chatbot, has taken the world by storm since its launch in November 2022. What started as a tool to supercharge productivity through writing essays and code with short text prompts has evolved into a behemoth with 300 million weekly active users. 2024 was a big year for OpenAI, from its partnership with Apple for its generative AI offering, Apple Intelligence, the release of GPT-4o with voice capabilities, and the highly-anticipated launch of its text-to-video model Sora. OpenAI also faced its share of internal drama, including the notable exits of high-level execs like co-founder and longtime chief…
Appsforbharat, the Indian startup behind Hindu dedicated app SRI Mandir, has raised $20 million in just over nine months since securing $18 million as the app continues to attract strong interest not only devotees but investors. Susquehanna Asia Venture Capital led the Series C round with participation from existing investors including Indian billionaire and tech veteran Nandan Nilekani’s basic partnership, Elevation Capital and Peak XV Partners. Religious devotion is deep in India, with 53 temples for every 100,000 people. Nearly two million Hindu followers pray for peace and happiness at home in local priests and temples. According to a survey…
A new organelles have been discovered in human cells, and scientists call them “semi-hardened.”Like our body’s full-size organs, the intracellular organelles are specialized structures that perform certain functions. Observing the filaments that preserve the shape of the cells, University of Virginia Assistant Professor Seham Ebrahim and her team noticed a new structure that is consistently appearing in the 3D images they are creating.At first, what appeared to be an artifact in the image was found to be a new organelles that could be involved in sorting, recycling and disposing of proteins in human cells. Ebrahim compared the hemifsome shape to…
Just a few days after launching limited Robotaxi services in Austin, Texas, Tesla has drawn out additional stunts to show off the progress of autonomous auto software. The company has driven the Model Y SUV into an apartment about 15 miles from the Tesla factory, where it lives in the apartment where the new owner of the car lives, completing what CEO Elon Musk called the first “autonomous delivery” of its customer vehicle. The vehicle was thought to have probably used the same software Tesla’s Robotaxi Model Y in Austin, but after delivery it was downgraded to commercially available, fully…
LevelPath, a procurement software startup founded by the duo behind Scout RFP, has raised $55 million in Series B funding led by battery ventures to quadruple revenue this year. The funding round also included participation from existing investors, including the benchmark that led the Level Pass $14.5 million seed round, as well as Redpoint, the lead investor in the $30 million Series A round announced in 2023. The startup was founded by Stan Garber and Alex Yakubovich (pictured right). His previous startup, Scout RFP, was acquired by Workday in 2019 for $540 million. Yakubovich and Garber spent three years working…